People: Annika Hein
@ANNIKA_HANNE / @JANE.BYTHEGREYATTIC
Name: Annika Hein
Occupation/Business/Creative Outlet: Editor in Chief and Creative Director of jane. (a biannual fashion and fine art print magazine that I co-founded with my partner Odin Wilde) + freelance writer / creative director and stylist.
Starsign: Very, very Pisces. (Libra moon and Scorpio rising)
Favourite Number: 8
First thing you did this morning? Kissed Odin good morning, fed our dog Arlo Grayson, and then I lit a Bodha Ground Incense and meditated. After that, I poured two cups of warm water mixed with Braggs apple cider vinegar, took my socks off and spent twenty minutes barefoot outside on the grass and soil with Odin. Then we went for a big walk around Lake Daylesford with Arlo.
My morning rituals have become really important to me lately, acting as a way to instil some sort of routine into what is otherwise a completely unreliable schedule. One of my goals for this year was to create special traditions and rituals that were just for me, or for us, (Odin and I), and I guess it seemed logical to start with the calm and still of the beginning of the day. Because we work from home a lot of the time, these rituals have helped to create clear boundaries between work time and personal time and I’m also hoping that when things get really busy or overwhelming or distracting, some of these new practises will provide a nice structure or sense of grounding.
What does 'wellness' mean to you? Daily practices that give you space and room to breathe, and time to slow down. It’s a conscious effort to find daily rituals or choices that allow you to feel at ease, comfortable, present and blissful. Someone once said to me, ‘When do you feel most like yourself? Before all the noise, the technology, the to-do lists, the emails, the push and pull from society and from life, when are you just you, in your most calm and natural state?’ She called it going into your “back body” and it really resinated with me, especially when talking about this idea of wellness. I think wellness means making little choices and changes to your daily life that allow you to find that place, your place of still and calm; the real you. I think actively practising balance and mindfulness has a big part to play, and so does being aware and accepting of your emotions and mental health. Most importantly I think wellness ultimately means finding ways to be kind and gentle with your whole self—sometimes my morning routine is simply reading a few pages of my book with a cup of earl grey tea in front of the fire, or it’s jumping straight into work before the sun has even come up. Some evenings the most I can do is take a quick shower before bed and on others I abandon everything to just take time out. The idea of wellness is quite intimate and essentially linked quite closely to self-care so I think it’s really important to trust your intuition, allow for some fluidity, and to take some of the pressure off. I’m trying to become more accepting of that fact that some days you can’t do it all, some days are hard or different or frustrating or luxuriously lazy and that’s OK.
Products found in your shower/by your bath? Hemp Foods unscented hemp milk soap, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, lavender oil, rosehip oil, magnesium flakes, magnesium oil and Pure Eden activated charcoal.
Three things that can always be found in your kitchen cupboard? Organic almonds for making homemade almond milk, nutritional yeast flakes and olive oil.
Favourite kitchen utensil? I’m not sure if it’s really a utensil, but my favourite thing in the kitchen is our VOL water filter, and also our two cream and blue china plates that contribute to our mismatched second-hand collection of crockery.
Currently reading? Re-reading Blue Nights by Joan Didion and making my way through Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950 by T. S. Eliot and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.
Currently browsing (.com)? At this moment, the library catalogue!
Favourite breakfast food? It would have to be a tie between Odin’s vegan blueberry pancakes and his scrambled tofu on sourdough with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes.
An album/mix that calms your nervous system? Young Mountain and S/T both by This Will Destroy You and Slowdive by Slowdive
An album/mix that hypes you up? We have a really good 60s / 70s playlist going that we keep adding to… it has lots of Lou Reed, The Doors, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground on it.
Most commonly used apps on your phone? Notes, Instagram, The Moon and Insight Timer.
Favourite form of movement/exercise? Yoga, walking and running.
One thing you'd like to incorporate into your day/week that you're currently yet to? A morning writing practice, a night time meditation, and tongue scraping or oil pulling first thing in the morning.
Nighttime rituals? To sign off from work, I turn my emails off and then do a yoga class and or go for a run. Then I burn some doTERRA clove or frankincense oil, have shower with all the lights turned off, and give myself an almond oil facial massage. Odin loves to cook, so most nights I’ll sit in the kitchen so we can talk, and drink red wine and listen to music while he makes us dinner. To get ready for sleep, I turn off our internet router and set both our phones to airplane mode and leave them in the kitchen. Then, in our room, I turn on my doTERRA petal diffusor with a few drops of lavender oil and practise legs-up-the-wall, (Viparita Karani), for ten minutes. After that I usually rub some sleep easy oil, (which is a blend of sweet almond oil, lavender, sandalwood, clary sage, palmrosa, marjoram, vetiver, ylang ylang and rose geranium), on the soles of my feet and read or write in bed before setting my alarm clock.
I feel most creatively fulfilled when... Just before the creative momentum accelerates, when you know the general direction of an idea but there’s time to ruminate and to sit with your thoughts for a little longer. Also when we receive notes and messages from our beautiful jane. community, on a tough day they can remind me why we do what we do.
I'm currently working on... Issue four of jane., learning French, slowly transcribing the many notes and thoughts I wrote on napkins and scrap pieces of paper while we were in Paris earlier this year, and learning to properly use the telescope my sister gave me for my birthday—at the moment though, I’m completely memorised by, and content in, simply gazing at the moon.
This time last year, I wish I knew... How good it feels to get off the merry-go-round.
I'm grateful for... Today’s violet grey sky with its promise of winter, our home and life in Daylesford, the support and love of our jane. family and readers as we continue to build this slow art movement and the creative community that surrounds it, visiting Jim Morrison’s grave earlier this year, having a sister who’s also my best friend, the unconditional encouragement I receive from my mum and dad, being chosen as Arlo’s human, and for Odin’s fierce and unwavering strength, love, care, and sensitivity.
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